Broiled Lobster Tail with Brown Butter Sauce

Broiled lobster tail—the quintessential fancy dinner menu item, isn’t it?

Unlike whole boiled or steamed lobster, which is almost impossible to eat delicately, with broiled lobster tail the work has already been done for you. The perfectly cooked meat sits atop the lobster’s bright red shell. All you have to do is cut and eat.

Of course this requires a bit more effort on the part of the one preparing the lobster tail. The lobster’s hard shell must be cut open, the meat dislodged from the walls of the shell and pulled out to rest on top before broiling.

But in the end, you have a lovely meal that doesn’t require bibs, nutcrackers, or wads of napkins.

For this lobster tail recipe we are using a sauce of browned butter with parsley, lemon zest, shallots, and some toasted hazelnuts. If you don’t want to go to that trouble, you can just use plain melted butter with some salt, pepper, and maybe a little paprika to dust the top of the lobster meat before broiling.

But I highly recommend browning the butter first. Just that extra step will intensify the butter flavor which goes so well with lobster. I’ve made broiled lobster both ways and will not go back to plain butter. Browned is so much better.

Toasted hazelnuts are also rather buttery in taste add a lovely crunch to each bite. Do you have a special way of preparing lobster tails? Please let us know about it in the comments. Thanks!

Broiled Lobster Tail with Brown Butter Sauce Recipe

If starting with frozen lobster tails, prepare a bowl with 2 quarts of cold water and 1 Tbsp salt. Stir to dissolve the salt. Place the lobster tails in the water. Add a few ice cubes. Let sit for half hour to an hour until defrosted.

This recipe calls for lobster tails that are 6 to 8 ounces each. If you are cooking smaller or larger lobster tails, you'll need to adjust the broiling time down or up. For example, a 3 ounce lobster tail should take 3 to 4 minutes to broil.

The trickiest part of working with lobster tails is opening the shell and loosening the meat enough to pull it through the cut you've made in the shell. Depending on at what point of the lobster's molting cycle the lobster was caught, the shell can be either really thick and strong, or thin and easy to manipulate.

Take care if working with an especially hard shell so you don't cut yourself, and use a strong hand. (I recommend watching this video for a good explanation of the technique.)

Ingredients

• 2 lobster tails 6-8 ounces each, fresh or frozen
• 1/4 cup unsalted raw hazelnuts
• 8 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 Tbsp minced shallots
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• Pinch of salt

Read More: Broiled Lobster Tail with Brown Butter Sauce